This invention relates generally to an improved apparatus for reliably and effeciently removing the first five shell segments, the ventral appendages, and the sand vein to produce a "fantail" shrimp.
In applicant's prior invention described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,087,887, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated, a method and apparatus for processing fantail shrimp was shown which, among other things, shows a device in which the ventral membrane of the shrimp body is longitudinally severed by a serrated blade edge disposed within an internal housing tunnel as the shrimp is transported on a moving disc. Also, the shrimp once processed was removed from the housing by advancement of the disc and shrimp body relative to an arcuate stripper blade extending between the rows of needles on the disc which displace the impaled shrimp outwardly of the needles.
The present invention, among other aspects, provides for an inlet trough outside of the housing which accomplishes alignment of the shrimp body in a desired attitude for pneumatic induction into the housing while concomitantly severing the thin abdominal shell and disrupting the swimmerets and the interconnection between the swimmerets and the shrimp body prior to entry into the housing.